<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Melvin Ely is practiced in patience. "My years with the Clippers were horrible. I don't think that's what's happening here," said Ely, who's played 13 minutes -- the least of any active Charlotte Bobcat this season. "Being with the Clippers really makes you thick-skinned.'' In other words, Ely knows the drill. The Los Angeles Clippers buried him on their bench for two seasons before trading Ely to the Bobcats. It amounted to a salary dump to facilitate the Clippers' pursuit of Kobe Bryant in free agency. Ely had a bad relationship with Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy. In Charlotte, it's better. In fact, Ely said his loyalty to coach Bernie Bickerstaff was a major factor in him returning this season, rather than taking a sign-and-trade deal that would have sent him to the Warriors. Bickerstaff said he has no problem with Ely's performance, that somebody has to sit on a deep team. So Bickerstaff simply asked him to be ready when called. "It's just like last year when I played sparingly at the beginning, then played a lot the rest of the season," Ely said. "My job is to get here an hour early, stay in shape and wait for my name to be called. You have to take the bad with the good, and it's not like there's a lack of respect for what I can do.''</div> Source
I don't know why he came back, last season he wasn't getting huge minutes, and Emeka and May were out for most of the year. So this year with both of them back, did he expect to play more?
I think he kind of knew his minutes were going to go down since Emeka and May are healthy. But I'm suprised he isn't getting a little more run at the 5.
